The Influence of Additions in the Use of Glass Fibre Reinforced Cement as a Construction Material

Abstract

Although in recent years glass fibre reinforced cement (GRC) has been used in buildings and infrastructure, its application in structural elements has been somewhat restricted due to the worsening of its mechanical properties with ageing and the limited data available related with its fracture energy. With the aim of developing existing knowledge of GRC, the fracture energy in an in-plane and out-of-plane direction of the panel has been obtained. Three types of GRC with different formulations have been tested. The results showed that the fracture energy of a GRC with a 25% addition of a pozzolanic admixture is 40% and 8% higher than a standard GRC in, respectively, in-plane and out-of-plane directions. Similarly, an addition of 25% of thermal-treated kaolin to a standard GRC increases its fracture energy up to 490% and 400%, to the corresponding orientation. The use of digital image correlation (DIC) in the fracture test analysis has permitted a description of the damaging patterns and explanation of the behaviours identified in the fracture tests performed. The multi-cracking process that appears explains the higher fracture energy found in the GRC with an addition of 25% of the aforementioned thermal-treated kaolin. The analysis performed by means of DIC and the results obtained showed GRC with an addition of 25% of thermal-treated kaolin to be the most suitable formulation for possible future structural applications with a short life span in horizontal and vertical elements.

Experimental determination of GFRC tensile parameters from three-point bending tests using an analytical damage model

“…The tensile stress-strain constitutive relationship which is determined from Eqs. (1) and (2) and the experimental mechanical material's parameters already identified (Table 8) is illustrated in Fig. 14-a.…”

“…GFRC is a composite material produced by reinforcement of a cementitious matrix in which short length glass fibers are distributed randomly. The incorporation of glass fibers is getting growing interest as it offers many advantages such as light weight and mechanical performance which has proved high compressive and tensile strengths, toughness and energy absorption [1,2,4].…”

“…Nowadays, GFRC has found successful use in architecture and design for non-structural elements (cladding facades, exterior facade skins) as well as in building for structural plate and shell elements especially in the electrical applications [2][3][4] as telecommunication towers, prefabricated electrical transformer stations, which have been successfully used. Many researchers [5][6][7][8][9][10] have attempted to develop numerical and analytical models in order to predict the uniaxial tensile behavior response from their experimental tests of advanced cement-based composites like fiberreinforced concrete FRC, high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete HPFRC or ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete UHPFRC materials [11,12].…”

Admixtures in Cement-Matrix Composites for Mechanical Reinforcement, Sustainability, and Smart Features

“…It was quickly observed that ordinary borisilicate glass fibers (E-glass) are eroded due to the alkalinity of the cement paste. The corrosion of the fibers in the cement matrix causes a phenomenon commonly known as ageing of glass fibers in the cement matrix: the ductility and the enhancement of the mechanical properties of the composite decrease with time [ 60 , 61 ]. Considerable effort was made to develop alkali-resistant glass fibers, until this problem was practically solved by the addition of zircon oxide ZrO 2 developed by Majumdar and Ryder in 1968 [ 11 ].…”

Extended Digital Image Correlation Method for Mapping Multiscale Damage in Concrete

“…The stress-strain response revealed enhancement in post peak with increasing fiber dosage at all exposure temperatures. Enfedaque et al [28] used DIC technique in the fracture test analysis of glass fibre reinforced cement (GRC). The damage pattern from the DIC output in the fracture tests of the GRC (with an addition of 25% of the thermal-treated kaolin) explained the higher fracture energy found in this admixture and is proved to be the most suitable formulation for possible future structural applications.…”